Anyone have any experience focus stacking? That's my next macro objective. Here's my first stack using Zerene stacker, it's only three exposures but I'm fairly happy with it (the stacks I've been checking out go from six to two goddamn hundred. Of live things). Any tips out there?One of the exposures is in my last post to give you some contrast.

I wonder... Can I just as well use video/ cine lenses for photography? It's just I'm looking at the Samyang 35mm F1.4 and the Samyang 35mm T1.5 video/ cine lenses and if the video one will give me the same stills quality but also a better drive for manual focus in video, I wouldn't mind paying the few quid extra, since I use my camera for video a lot too. Any opinions on that?

I didn't actually know focus stacking was a thing when I basically did exactly that for this photo:

I just did it in Photoshop, though, and I wasn't aiming to do it, so the photos were quite different and a challenge to merge. I wouldn't know much. I would love to hear of your experiences and techniques as you go on with it, as it can do some good stuff. Your use of it here is really nice and subtle. 600?! That's insane.

@Magnalus Thanks, looked like it worked out well for your snails. I didn't even consider photoshop, went straight for Zerene stacker which I've been playing with all day. It's worked a treat so far. As long as I do the groundwork first. This basically involves making sure I'm aligning the shots as best I can as I go. Easier said than done at 5:1 magnification. I got a little more confident toward the end and shot at f4ish but at 3-4:1 mag, requiring around twenty shots to get focus. They turned out ok..a few artifacts here and there which I'll sort out later, but work in progress!

As for using Cine lenses for stills, I've been using the Samyang 14mm cine lens recently and it's very usable indeed. I've actually bought myself the stills version though. Two reasons: 1) the focus throw is insanely long which is a pain in the ass and 2) the aperture ring is de-clicked, also annoying. I shoot a fair amount of video but rarely use a follow focus or need to seamlessly drift through t-stops. Great lenses though, whatever you go for. Hope that's even slightly helpful.

Thanks, man. I think I'll go for the stills one for now. If I get any of my planned projects to the shooting stage, maybe I'll get some cine ones. The Samyang lenses are incredibly impressive for what they do, I'm very excited about getting one.

I hate having to comment on this thread - everything is so bloody good i don't know where to start. Bankara's fish market pictures had a particular appeal to them though, reminded me of the sort of places i sometimes pass through at work, and the bloke driving that skate thing with the pink barrel? Yes, we are living in the science fiction future land, yes, it's still crap.

You also know when you're in Quebec if you go to the city hall archives but find yourself in the midst of a film set, which is maybe doing a 1970s recreation of the FLQ terrorist scare but maybe just throwing incongruous costumes around:

@roadscum, seconded on the future. I think our dear leader put it best when he said that the future bleeds in in unexpected places. So no jetpacks but you get tiny computers that you can carry around with you that uplink with satellites and terrestrial radio and governments use them to spy on you. Funny that.

Also, I cannot help myself, god help me i have to say it: You know what they say,mate. Rubbish in, rubbish out. :D

Started shooting in B&W primarily, because up to now I feel like I've had no good grasp, either in photos or artwork, of values. Color bombast has covered for value substance.

But I didn't realize that the camera RAW files, even when shot in monochrome mode, capture color data anyway. So I ended up taking some that look best in B&W, and some color photos that I didn't realize were color, so approached them as B&W. I almost feel like this has been a cheat, but I'll take it.